Mike De Decker raised plenty of eyebrows by defeating Luke Humphries to win the World Grand Prix, a first TV title for the world No. 26.
And by doing so the Belgian has put himself in the best position possible to gain entry to next year’s lucrative Premier League Darts.
There has never been a winner of a Sky Sports TV tournament who has not received an invitation to the eight-man event, which was won this year by Luke Littler.
The entrants to the competition are decided by the top four players in the world rankings, which are currently Humphries, Michael Smith, Michael van Gerwen and Rob Cross. Then four additional spots are chosen as wildcards by the PDC, darts’ governing body.
One of those places will be handed to Littler as the defending champion, while last year saw Nathan Aspinall, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright compete across 16 nights.
But De Decker does not think he should be sharing the oche with darts' elite just yet. “To be honest, I don't think I'm ready for the Premier League just yet,” the 28-year-old said in his post-match press conference.
“If they put me in, I'll say yes, a 100 per cent, but if they don't put me in, then that's fine. Then maybe next year or the year after.
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“It's 14 weeks against the top eight of the world every single week, and it's so hard. I've seen it with Kim [Huybrechts], I've seen it with Dimitri [Van den Bergh], I've seen it with Jelle [Klaasen], who is a good friend.”
De Decker outplayed Humphries in Leicester, having traded the opening two sets with deciding frames, the underdog broke clear and claimed the next set without the world champion getting a leg on the board.
The Belgian went into the interval with a 3-1 lead, which he extended in the very next frame only for Humphries to rally back with three sets of his own to tie.
De Decker stopped the rot and won the final two sets, double 20 sealed his victory as he became only the second Belgian player to win a televised PDC event after Van den Bergh.
And Humphries, who knows De Decker well, dismissed his conqueror’s notion that he is not ready for the Premier League.
“Even if he doesn't win one in the next four tournaments, I still think he might have a great shot at the Premier League,” Humphries said. “If he has a good Worlds [Championship], then I would personally put him in.
“I don't think he's played his best darts this week. I think there's another level in Mike. The next step for him was to bring it to the stage, and he has, but he's got to keep proving it like I had to, and I did.
“The only real challenge will be between him and Dimitri. Dimitri's had a go. It didn't really work out well for him once, and it didn't the other time. So just maybe it's worth trying someone else.”